Trained as a registered nurse, the Rio de Janeiro born Aizita Nascimento (1939 -) was also an actress and model that appeared in both Brazilian film and television. She won the Miss Renascença contest of 1963. Clube Renascença was a black social club established in February of 1951 in Rio de Janeiro. The goal of the club was to neutralize the negative stigma associated with black Brazilians and show how one could be a black person of middle-class status. In Brazil, to be black is to be poor, dirty and badly-educated. The image of the black family was that of disorganization, incompleteness and instability. Likewise, although some black (inclusive of mulata) women were considered attractive, Brazilian society deemed these women only good for the kitchen or the bedroom.
Clube Renascença (which may have been influenced by the Harlem Renaissance) sought to project the image of black women as suitable for marriage as well as a standard of beauty, education, etiquette and elegance.
After the contest, there were opportunities for Aizita to debut in film, and it was in Wilson Silva’s 1968 film Cristo de Lama that her acting career began. In the film she is Narcissa, wife of sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa, Aleijadinho. She was then invited to star in the soap opera Passo dos Ventos on Globo TV that had names such as Joan Fomm and Mário Lago in its cast. And soon after came another role already in another novel of the defunct TV Excelsior, Vida em Conflito where Aizita portrayed the role of Ângela.
Aizita also appeared in a humorous TV Excelsior feature called Times Square, where at the side of the great Afro-Brazilian actor Grande Otelo made jokes to the sound of the famous songs of the era, such as those of Ary Barroso and Luis Iglesias to. In 1983, she performed in the Olhar Eletrônico program that aired on TV Gazeta.
Model
In June 1963, in the Maracanãzinho of Rio de Janeiro, in the midst of dozens of young girls who competed for the title of Miss Guanabara, were announced the eight finalists, and among them was Aizita. About 25 thousand people watched the contest and hearing the names the crowd began to shout: “Queremos a mulata!” (We want the mulata), and the mulata of the occasion was Aizita.
Even with all those present insistently screaming that they wanted Aizita to win the title, she ended up in sixth place and at that time the screams increased and there also came many boos of outrage. Nobody conformed that Miss Clube Renascença came in sixth place, but still not winning the contest, the beautiful mulata ended up on TV and opened the way for new black miss contestants.
What happened had such repercussion that even a chronicle was made about her by the author Henry Pongetti called “Queremos a Mulata” was published in Manchete Magazine.
Actress
Aizita’s first novela (soap opera), Passo dos Ventos in 1968, was the sixth novela to integrate the eight o’clock hour of the Globo network. The novela told the story of Vivian Chevalier, played by actress Glória Menezes, who inherited a large fortune and because of this everyone around her started to envy her and close to her out of pure interest.
Her second novela was Vidas em Conflito on TV Excelsior, which told the story of a woman and her mother who fell in love with the same man, a situation that causes a lot of conflict between the two. In 1970, Aizita participated in the novela Assim na Terra Como no Céu (On Earth As in Heaven) where she played the character Maria Lúcia. The plot revolves around a priest who sheds his cassock for a great love and sees her being murdered.
Also in the 60s, Aizita performed in the cult Brasil ano 2000 (1969), by Walter Lima Jr. But her great success was with the funny and bitter episode O melhor da festa (the best of the party), directed by Victor di Mello, one of the three segments of the film Como era boa a nossa empregada (how good our maid was) (1973). The actress was great and irresistible as the maid who drives Naná, the character of the great Jorge Dória, crazy. Later, Nascimento starred in another episode again, this time in Pastéis para uma mulata (pastels for a mulata), directed by Jece Valadão and the film Ninguém segura essas mulheres (1976), this time killing the desire of the character played by Tony Ramos.
In the 70s and 80s, Nascimento also worked as a television host for the TV Cultura network. She would eventually end her artistic career and return to nursing. Nascimento is one of the few Afro-Brazilian actresses of acclaim from the 1960s and 70s.
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